Read Online Claiming the Highlander by Kinley MacGregor - Free Book Online
Authors: Kinley MacGregor
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To Lochlan’s amazement, they complied, and it was then he knew the leader of the irate geese.
“What the devil is the meaning of this?” Lochlan asked. “What are all of you doing here?”
“We’ve come for answers,” Fergus said over the murmuring voices. “I saw the way you and your brothers cozied up to the women, and now I’m thinking you and them fancy brothers of yours are wanting to be keeping our women for yourselves.”
Lochlan gaped in disbelief. “You canna be serious.”
“What else are we to think?” Davis snarled.
At a score and ten years, with a thick mop of tawny hair and a slight build, Davis was normally one of the more reliable men of the clan. But by the furious look on his face, Lochlan could tell Fergus had stirred up quite a bit of mischief while Lochlan had been gone.
“All of us here know that Braden MacAllister never sleeps alone,” Davis continued, “and now you’ve left him locked up in the kirk with our women. He’s probably in a darkened corner even as we speak with one of our women wrappedabout him. And God help you both if it’s my wife he’s with.”
Davis raked Lochlan with a repugnant glare. “Where was your head when you decided to leave him in there? I’m thinking it’s time we be finding ourselves a new laird! One with some common sense.”
“Aye!” the others shouted in unison.
Lochlan could feel his blood starting to boil. Granted, Braden was a bit rambunctious when it came to women, but even his scandalous brother knew when to draw the line of propriety.
Most of the time, anyway.
It wasn’t Fergus’s or Davis’s place to reprimand Braden. That was for Lochlan to do.
“I left Braden in there to get the women out,” Lochlan explained.
About half the men snorted in disgust.
Dermot came forward. Only half an inch shorter than Lochlan, the older man’s light gray eyes burned in anger. “I’ve spent the better part of a decade guarding my daughters from that randy brother of yours, and now you expect me to believe he’s not in there, right now, lining the women up to choose one or even more to warm his bed? Whose knotty-pated decision was it to send him in there in the first place?”
The word “mine” faltered on Lochlan’s tongue. No need to make the matter any worse than it alreadywas. None of his men were ready to listen to reason.
Silently, Lochlan cursed his brother’s raging hormones and good looks. Better he should have had a brother who looked like a warted troll than one who was forever being pursued by the fairer sex.
The men began shouting at him again.
Lochlan held his hands up to silence them.
Seeking to allay their fears, he explained Braden’s plan as best he could and prayed for them to listen.
“Braden went inside the kirk to bring Maggie out. She’s the only woman he’s after; the rest are safe.”
Bitter, cruel laughter broke out.
“What kind of fools do you take us for?” Davis asked. “None of
us
would have Maggie on her best day. Now, why would your brother be after her when he could have the best-looking among them?”
The coldhearted statement brought a sudden echoing silence to the hall.
All eyes turned slowly to Maggie’s four brothers who had come inside with the others. Stephen, Ian, Duncan and Jamie looked as if they were ready to kill each man standing in the room.
“And just what do you be meaning by that, Davis MacDowd?” Jamie asked in a low, lethal tone.
Davis stammered as he regarded the four angrybrothers united in defense of their baby sister. “I didn’t mean much. It’s just… you know yourself that no man here has ever courted her.”
The words only served to make the brothers’ faces even redder, their bodies more tense as they regarded the men around them.
“And what’s wrong with my little sister?” Duncan took up the challenge.
“First, she’s not much to look at,” Fergus said. “And second, she’s off in the head. Look what she’s gone and done with the
“What the devil is the meaning of this?” Lochlan asked. “What are all of you doing here?”
“We’ve come for answers,” Fergus said over the murmuring voices. “I saw the way you and your brothers cozied up to the women, and now I’m thinking you and them fancy brothers of yours are wanting to be keeping our women for yourselves.”
Lochlan gaped in disbelief. “You canna be serious.”
“What else are we to think?” Davis snarled.
At a score and ten years, with a thick mop of tawny hair and a slight build, Davis was normally one of the more reliable men of the clan. But by the furious look on his face, Lochlan could tell Fergus had stirred up quite a bit of mischief while Lochlan had been gone.
“All of us here know that Braden MacAllister never sleeps alone,” Davis continued, “and now you’ve left him locked up in the kirk with our women. He’s probably in a darkened corner even as we speak with one of our women wrappedabout him. And God help you both if it’s my wife he’s with.”
Davis raked Lochlan with a repugnant glare. “Where was your head when you decided to leave him in there? I’m thinking it’s time we be finding ourselves a new laird! One with some common sense.”
“Aye!” the others shouted in unison.
Lochlan could feel his blood starting to boil. Granted, Braden was a bit rambunctious when it came to women, but even his scandalous brother knew when to draw the line of propriety.
Most of the time, anyway.
It wasn’t Fergus’s or Davis’s place to reprimand Braden. That was for Lochlan to do.
“I left Braden in there to get the women out,” Lochlan explained.
About half the men snorted in disgust.
Dermot came forward. Only half an inch shorter than Lochlan, the older man’s light gray eyes burned in anger. “I’ve spent the better part of a decade guarding my daughters from that randy brother of yours, and now you expect me to believe he’s not in there, right now, lining the women up to choose one or even more to warm his bed? Whose knotty-pated decision was it to send him in there in the first place?”
The word “mine” faltered on Lochlan’s tongue. No need to make the matter any worse than it alreadywas. None of his men were ready to listen to reason.
Silently, Lochlan cursed his brother’s raging hormones and good looks. Better he should have had a brother who looked like a warted troll than one who was forever being pursued by the fairer sex.
The men began shouting at him again.
Lochlan held his hands up to silence them.
Seeking to allay their fears, he explained Braden’s plan as best he could and prayed for them to listen.
“Braden went inside the kirk to bring Maggie out. She’s the only woman he’s after; the rest are safe.”
Bitter, cruel laughter broke out.
“What kind of fools do you take us for?” Davis asked. “None of
us
would have Maggie on her best day. Now, why would your brother be after her when he could have the best-looking among them?”
The coldhearted statement brought a sudden echoing silence to the hall.
All eyes turned slowly to Maggie’s four brothers who had come inside with the others. Stephen, Ian, Duncan and Jamie looked as if they were ready to kill each man standing in the room.
“And just what do you be meaning by that, Davis MacDowd?” Jamie asked in a low, lethal tone.
Davis stammered as he regarded the four angrybrothers united in defense of their baby sister. “I didn’t mean much. It’s just… you know yourself that no man here has ever courted her.”
The words only served to make the brothers’ faces even redder, their bodies more tense as they regarded the men around them.
“And what’s wrong with my little sister?” Duncan took up the challenge.
“First, she’s not much to look at,” Fergus said. “And second, she’s off in the head. Look what she’s gone and done with the
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